1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material and, more particularly, to a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material having a high saturation, an improved sharpness, and a remarkably improved dark storage stability of a dye image after development.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a silver halide color photographic light-sensitive material, it is a common practice to use a material containing three types of color couplers which couple with an oxidized form of an aromatic primary amine-based color developing agent to form yellow, magenta, and cyan colors.
As the yellow coupler of the above couplers, an acylacetamide coupler represented by a benzoylacetanilide coupler or a pivaloylacetanilide coupler is generally used. The benzoylacetamide type coupler has a high coupling activity with an aromatic primary amine developing agent and can produce a yellow dye having a large molecular absorptivity coefficient. However, this coupler has a problem of low dye stability upon dark storage. The pivaloylacetamide type coupler is excellent in a dye stability but is low in a coupling reactivity upon development and has only a small molecular absorptivity coefficient. Therefore, a large amount of the color forming coupler must be used in order to obtain a sufficient dye density, and this results in disadvantages in both an image quality and a cost.
various studies, on the other hand, have been made on an acyl group of the acylacetamide type yellow coupler. For example, U.S. Pat. Re. No. 27,848 discloses couplers having a 7,7-dimethylnorbornane-1-carbonyl group and a 1-methylcyclohexane-1-carbonyl group as variations of the pivaloyl group. However, these couplers are low in a coupling activity and can produce only dyes having small molecular absorptivity coefficients. JP-A-47-26133 ("JP-A" means Published Unexamined Japanese Patent Application) discloses couplers having a cyclopropane-1-carbonyl group and a cyclohexane-1-carbonyl group. These couplers, however, are still unsatisfactory because the stabilities of produced dyes are low. For these reasons, a demand has arisen for development of a yellow coupler having both good color forming properties (i.e., a high coupling activity of the coupler and a large molecular absorptivity coefficient of a produced dye) and a good dye stability.
On the other hand, miniaturization in format and size is required for recent color photographic light-sensitive materials, and this requires a further improvement in an image quality. That is, it is now unsatisfactory only to reduce the amount of couplers or high boiling point organic solvents to form thin layers by using couplers having good color forming properties, thereby improving a sharpness. It is also unsatisfactory only to improve a color saturation by using couplers having good color forming properties without increasing the coupler amount used (without deteriorating sharpness).
As a means for improving a sharpness or color saturation, it is known to use development inhibitor releasing compounds described in, e.g., JP-A-2-154256, JP-A-1-105947, JP-A-1-140152, JP-A-63-23152, JP-A-61-240240, JP-A-61-233741, and JP-A-61-231553. However, the use of these compounds alone is still unsatisfactory.